The stock is alive.
Cover for pet shops and aquatic retailers: livestock that depends on your systems, water inside a retail building, and animals you sold to somebody else.
Pet shop insurance
Usually includes
Livestock
Systems failure
Premises & fit-out
Stock
Public liability
Products liability
One
conversation.
You explain the business once, and we take it from there.
Bespoke service
for your business
No two businesses are the same, so we start with yours rather than with a template.
Everything
quoted together.
The premises, your stock, your liability and the trade you would lose, priced in one go rather than piece by piece.
Know your cover
What is pet shop insurance?
A pet shop holds stock that dies if the electricity does. Filtration, heating, aeration and lighting are the difference between a display and a loss, and a failure overnight is the realistic claim rather than a fire. On top of that sits water in quantity inside a building, which damages floors and neighbours, and liability for an animal after it has left with a customer. Cover is built around livestock and the systems that support it, with the premises and liabilities behind them.
It covers the livestock
Fish, small animals, reptiles and birds, valued as stock and dependent on your systems.
It covers the systems failing
Loss of livestock after filtration, heating or power fails, which stock cover alone does not reach.
It does not cover natural mortality
Stock that dies of ordinary causes is a trading cost. The policy answers loss from an insured event.
Who it’s for
Whatever you keep.
✓
Pet shops
Small animals, food, accessories and often a grooming or advice service.
✓
Aquatic specialists
Tanks, filtration and water volumes that a general retailer never contemplates.
✓
Reptile and exotics retailers
Heated and humidity-controlled housing, and licensing questions with it.
✓
Aviaries and bird retailers
Livestock with its own disease and escape exposures.
✓
Pet shops with grooming on site
A service alongside the shop, which brings animals in your custody.
✓
Retailers with an online arm
Dry goods despatched, and sometimes livestock, which is a different question again.
What we cover
Cover built around your livestock.
We ask what livestock you hold, what systems keep it alive and what else you sell before we approach anyone. Then show you what’s available, and you decide what fits.
Livestock
Fish, small animals, reptiles and birds held for sale, at the value you carry.
Systems failure
Livestock lost when filtration, heating, aeration or the power fails, which is a breakdown consequence.
Premises & fit-out
The shop, the tank racking, the housing and the plumbing that all of it runs on.
Stock
Food, bedding, tanks, accessories and everything that is not alive.
Public liability
A customer injured in the shop, including on a wet floor, and water escaping to a neighbour.
Products liability
Harm caused by something you sold, including an animal, a food or a piece of equipment.
Equipment & plant
Pumps, filters, heaters, lighting and the tills, which are what the livestock depends on.
Employers’ liability
Required by law from your first employee, including anyone handling animals.
Cyber & data
The online shop, the livestock records and the payments taken at the counter.
Who this cover tends to suit.
This cover is generally bought by pet and aquatic retailers, from a single shop to a business with a large aquatics hall and a grooming room. Not every part will apply to every business, so tell us how you’re set up and we’ll show you what’s relevant.
Worth knowing
Check the details before you choose.
Livestock cover is its own section
It is rarely part of a general stock figure, and the perils it answers are narrower. Establish what triggers it before you rely on it.
The systems are the risk
Filtration, heating and aeration failing is what kills stock, and that is a breakdown consequence rather than damage. Ask whether the policy reaches it and what conditions attach.
Water escape damages other people
A retail unit holding large volumes of water sits above or beside somebody else’s property. It is a liability exposure as much as a property one.
Grooming brings animals into custody
If you groom or board, animals in your care is a separate cover from injury to a person. Tell us if you offer either.
Every shop is different.
A dry-goods pet shop and a marine aquatics specialist don’t carry the same risk, so we ask different questions for each.
Pet shops
Aquatics
Marine aquariums
Tropical fish
Coldwater fish
Reptiles and exotics
Small animals
Birds and aviaries
Pet food and accessories
Livestock holding
Filtration systems
Heated housing
Grooming on site
Boarding
Online dry goods
Advice and consultation
Pet shops
Aquatics
Marine aquariums
Tropical fish
Coldwater fish
Reptiles and exotics
Small animals
Birds and aviaries
Pet food and accessories
Livestock holding
Filtration systems
Heated housing
Grooming on site
Boarding
Online dry goods
Advice and consultation
Why Vara
Bespoke service for you & your business,
without the big-firm minimum.
01
Livestock and systems come first
The realistic loss is a pump or a heater rather than a fire. We establish what the stock depends on before we present the risk.
02
Water escape is raised early
Volumes of water in a retail unit affect the property and the liability sides. We put it in front of insurers rather than let it surface at renewal.
03
Services get declared
Grooming, boarding and advice each add an exposure. We describe the whole business, not just the shelves.
04
We present the risk right
Livestock values, systems, water volumes, staff and claims history. How it’s framed changes what you pay.
You talk to a person. The machines do the typing.
Free review of your pet shop cover and costs.
On a policy that treats livestock like tinned food? Leave your details and we’ll call you straight back. One conversation covers the lot.
What the review covers
Livestock is rarely part of a general stock figure, and it typically carries its own limit and a narrower set of perils worth establishing before you rely on it.
Filtration, heating and aeration failing is what actually kills stock, and that’s a breakdown consequence rather than damage in the way most stock cover treats it.
We approach insurers on our panel who write pet and aquatic retail risks, and come back with what they’ll offer.
We explain each option in plain English, including what it doesn’t cover.
If it’s not a risk we can place, we’ll tell you straight away rather than leave you waiting.
No obligation to switch. You decide what fits.
Rather not wait? Call us on 0333 091 3663
Good to know
Pet shop insurance questions, answered straight.
What insurance does a pet shop need?
Is my livestock covered by stock insurance?
What happens if the filtration or heating fails?
Am I liable for an animal after a customer takes it home?
What about water escaping and damaging a neighbour?
Do I need extra cover for reptiles or exotics?
Does grooming or boarding change the cover?
Can I send livestock by post?
Vara Commercial Insurance · 0333 091 3663
Vara is a trading name of Koral AI Operating Company Limited. Vara is an appointed representative of Innovative Risk Labs Ltd, under Firm Reference Number 1060955. Innovative Risk Labs Ltd is authorised and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority, under FRN 609155. We are registered in England and Wales under Registered Company Number 17256222. Registered office: 167-169 Great Portland Street, 5th Floor, London, W1W 5PF.